Sunday, June 12, 2011

A review of "Love"

The fifth anniversary performance of Cirque du Soleil's Love went down this past Wednesday. Rolling Stonegives a recap.

Excerpts: A lot of what Love has going for it, though, is unique to the Beatles. George and Giles Martin's ingenious remixes and mash-ups of the band's catalogue – 130 songs turn up, one way or another, in the show's hour-and-a-half duration – take for granted that the audience knows the entire Beatles repertoire inside and out, and take it as their task to make that repertoire fresh. (There are three speakers in each of the theater's 2,000-odd seats; it sounds fantastic.) And the entire visual presentation of the show riffs on Beatles-related imagery, from the constant presentation of elements in groups of four to the black-topped white balloons that recall Beatle haircuts.

. . .

Before the show itself began, the notable members of the audience were introduced: McCartney (looking like he was born six or seven years after the Beatles broke up), Yoko Ono with Sean Ono Lennon, Olivia and Dhani Harrison, and Sir George and Giles Martin, as well as various Cirque du Soleil upper-echelon types. Ringo Starr, who's currently on tour in Europe, sent a video greeting (which included his now-signature "peace and love" twice). After the show, the special guests briefly came up on stage. Yoko Ono spoke at some length in praise of Olivia Harrison's advocacy for the project; McCartney, who appeared to have gotten another five years younger over the course of the show, declared that it was "still the hottest thing in town."